Ask Glosso

10 thoughts on “Ask Glosso”

Would you be interested in posting a review of A Guide to English Language Usage? If so, I will send you a review copy. I must warn you that it is 422 pages and 190,000 words. On the other hand, your father is a great fan of it.

Hi Peter,
That’s a really nice idea … I have to admit, I’ve never written a book review, and I don’t think of myself as a writer, but I think I might be up for the challenge (and I would really like to see a copy of the book). Let me have a think about it, and let’s be in touch on Facebook?
Thanks for the idea!
Louise

Louise,
Will you help me understand why Europeans spell the word ‘lose’ (as in, misplaced, failed, etc) with two o’s? I thought initially that it was just my non-native English speaking friends – and that perhaps their English teachers in grade school consistently taught it wrong. However, this past week I found a native speaker (in U.K) also spelling it ‘loose’. It drives me mad!!! I know this is more about me and my lack of willingness to see it spelled any other way than ‘lose’. Short of therapy to sort out my resistance, I thought perhaps you could edify me and this would calm me down a bit.

Hi Andrea!
All I can say is that a lot of people don’t know how to spell “lose” (or the difference between “lose” and “loose”) – whether they’re American, European, or Martian. I think it’s one of the most common misspellings out there. I’m certain that there isn’t a standard alternative spelling of “lose” with two ‘o’s: it’s just that so many people get it wrong, it’s beginning to feel legit. A bit like “alright” (which should be two words – “all right”): because it’s so often spelled as one word like that, many people now think of it as standard. But as far as all my dictionaries are concerned, “lose” and “loose” mean two different things!
I’m not sure if that calms you down or makes you feel even more annoyed, but that’s my understanding of it.
Good to hear from you: thanks for checking in! And happy 2014 ..
Louise

Yes – the “different than”/”different from” is partly a Brit-American thing: I covered it briefly in this post about prepositions back in January: http://www.glossophilia.org/?p=5830. I think Americans tend to like “than” where Brits prefer “to”, whereas we’re not that different from each other when it comes to “from” …

Yeah – across the world is pretty bad. But what about “across the universe”? Do you think The Beatles got that one wrong?

Hi Jonathan,
Sorry not to reply sooner: I’m going to look into this and probably do a post on “truce words” (which are quite an interesting subject in themselves). Stay tuned, and thanks for the question!
Louise